Aaron's First Mission: Aftermath
Aaron was deep in thought while he sat at the bar of the Dragon Gunfire guild, his twin swords were resting against a stool on his left, as much as he cherished his blades, he couldn't wear them all the time. He had chosen a spot away from his guild mates to sit in, not because he didn't like them, he loved them, he just wanted to reflect over the result of his mission. It had been his first mission and he had failed it, what had made it worse was that he needed to ask his mentor and lifelong friend Etherion for a loan to pay the rent for the house he and his girlfriend Elizabeth had. He felt completely horrible. "Hey Aaron," said Matthew, sitting down next to him. "You look glum. What's wrong?" Aaron looked over at one the dragon slayer who sat next to him. Aaron tended to think Matthew was a good guy even though he didn't know much about him, he was very friendly and seemed to genuinely care about his friends. "Ah it's nothing really, just feeling down about failing my first mission." Aaron had opted to not go to much into detail about his troubles. It wasn't because he didn't want to, it was because he didn't like telling people about his troubles, he felt that it burdened them. "You don't wanna talk about it?" asked Matthew. "I'm a good listener." "Don't probe him Matthew," said Victor, leaning on a nearby pillar. "He doesn't like to burden others with his problems. I can tell from looking at him. We have the same eyes." Victor had once been a member of a dark guild, and had kept that information secret for years. Aaron looked up at Victor, who he had only just realized was still standing by the pillar, and had been since he had sat at the bar a few moments ago. He liked Victor, not for the same reason he like Matthew, it was something else that he could never quite figure out. But he respected him, and admired his weapons as well. The man had always seemed good at reading people, but even he himself hadn't realized he was letting off his emotions that much. He began to speak, with a soft chuckle, "You can tell that easily huh." "I walk in the shoes of several different creatures. You pick up skills like that over time." The swordsman sat down next to Matthew at the bar, ordering a drink. Not to mention you're easier to read than a book." "Yeah, so I have been told." Aaron thought back on his friends for a moment, who always seemed to read him so easily, and tell him to talk to others and not hold stuff in so much. "I have also been told to open up a bit more. How did your guys' first mission turn out?" "Our first mission huh?" said Matthew. "Boy that takes me back." "We were contracted to destroy a dark guild," explained Victor. "If they're not dead, they're incarcerated." "But they were pretty weak. That Steppenwolf guy's a lot stronger than any of those bozos." "After all, he was an experiment of the Magic Council." "Yeah he is, but it wasn't just his strength that threw me, it was the fact that I barely landed any hits on him..." Aaron tried hard not to sound melodramatic, as well as not whining, but he felt bad. "I don't feel bad cause I lost though, I feel bad that this was my first mission and I failed. Not just myself, but the guild too." "You didn't fail the guild," said a voice. The man in red began approaching the bar, it was their master, William Mercury. "May I speak to him alone for a moment?" "Sure thing boss," said Matthew. Him and Victor hopped out of their stools, and walked outside. "Follow me," said William to Aaron. Aaron, not knowing what else to do stood up and prepared himself for whatever he had in store for him. "Yes sir." The master led his student up some stairs, which eventually let out on a balcony, overlooking the entirety of Crocus. "It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" asked William. "Previous guild masters would often take their students up here to think and reflect." Aaron looked over at the city and was simply awe struck. He had seen very few things that he thought was as beautiful as the city. He looked at his boss and mentor, he was easily one of the strongest dragon slayers he had met. He wanted to be as strong as him, he thought about his friend Genisus and how he had been off training for the last few years, and he himself felt like he hadn't gotten any stronger. "It is an amazing sight sir. Remind me to bring my girlfriend up here one night." He chuckled a bit as he spoke but became serious again. "But if I may ask, why did you bring me up here?" "As I said before," began William, "to reflect. Think back to your battle against Steppenwolf. What kind of vibe did you get from him? Did he seem hostile? Friendly? How did his presence make you feel?" Aaron thought back on his fight for a moment. He hadn't seemed directly hostile, if anything it had seemed that he wanted to escape more than fight. That's what it was at first, until Aaron kept following him. At the end of the fight he seemed to try harder to take him out. "He didn't want to fight...he wanted to escape. At the end of the fight though, he tried much harder to fight me off. It wasn't his presence that stopped me, it was his pressure. The power of his heat..." Aaron trailed off as he finished, looking over the city again. "And what motivated you to pursue him?" William continued. "A lust for battle? Or was it something much more precious?" Taken aback by his mentors question. Aaron liked battle, when he was in battle he loved the adrenaline rush. He also knew that this was due to his dragon instincts that were enhanced by a dragon soul. But there was another thing that made him want to fight, and keep fighting, three things actually. "I haven't told a lot of people this...when I first started learning dragon slayer magic I actually had two teachers, my fire dragon teacher Etherion, and his brother Glacius, an Ice dragon. When I was 15 we were ambushed by a group of people who were hunting dragons and their slayers. When Glacius was in human form, he tried to protect me from a mage, he died in the process. Several years later, my best friends girlfriend died in his arms...she made us promise to protect what was precious to us. My motivation was, and is, to protect my mate Elizabeth, so that no one close to me ever dies again." "I see. And is this what motivated you to fight Steppenwolf. You needed the money to support yourself, and by extension her." William put his hand on Aaron's shoulder. "Your intensions were sound young one. It just turns out that your target was an innocent. You were lied to. Don't forget that. And if you're still upset about the money, you'll be compensated." "I know was lied to, and I'm not worried about the money. Elizabeth slapped that guilt out of me quickly." He chuckled a bit at his own sentence. "That doesn't change the fact that I still failed the mission. My first mission at that." "Do you want to know how my first mission went?" said William. "It was back in the day, when Dragon Gunfire still follows their original principals. I was supposed to take out a small group of poachers. My guild mates thought I could handle it because none of them were Dragon Slayers. They couldn't have been more wrong. I was beaten in less than a minute, and came crawling back to the guild. Unlike me, however, Tyre was not a very kind guild master, and had my father lash me for my failure. I was only 12 years old." Aaron looked at his mentor in shock. "Wow, I'm sorry that happened." At this point he wasn't sure what to say, but he understood what his mentor was saying. "Makes me glad you're the current guildmaster..." "It's fine. My harsh upbringing, all the failures that I went through, turned me into the person that I am today. Now the real question is, will you let this failure haunt, or will you learn from it, get past, and become stronger as a result." "No...I won't let my failures haunt me. I did that for too long. But I won't anymore." Aaron looked over at the mountains not to far away. He felt better having made his decision, and having talked to his mentor. "I will become stronger." "And I'll help you get stronger." William leaned down so that he was eye level with Aaron. "Would you like to learn how to master the Flame of Rebuke?" "The...the Flame of Rebuke? That would be...amazing." Aaron looked into William's eyes with determination. "It would be an honor to learn from you sir." Category:Black Dwarf Star Category:RP Category:Roleplay